﻿“Hey John,” he said, “You get picked on a lot, at school, don’t you?” For a moment I paused. I wasn’t sure how I wanted to answer his question. If I chose to be honest, maybe he’d show some compassion. But in my fourteen years of living, I came to understand that compassion was not an adverb that was commonly used to describe teenage boys. If one existed, he would surely have to be placed on an endangered species list.

Many of us stay stuck, in a miserable state of living, simply because we do not give ourselves permission to imagine life as anything different. If we are to ever move forward in life, we must allow ourselves to imagine what life would be like outside of our current reality.

I chose to confront this question with a clear and conscious decision to love myself regardless of the opinions, or judgement, of others. I concluded that the gospel is much more than a “get out of hell for free” card. It is an invitation for me

I stood there in shock. I hadn’t anticipated hearing the words that I just heard. Yet, deep inside I could not deny the truth being told to me…… “John, have you considered that you aren’t genetically capable of singing the repertoire that you’ve been trying to sing?”….